UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State President Eric J. Barron’s monthly WPSU show returns for its third season when it airs at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11, on WPSU-TV.
The show will premiere with a new name, “Digging Deeper,” to mirror the president’s blog after being called “Higher Education in Focus” during its first two seasons. In addition to Sunday morning’s debut, the WPSU Penn State program will broadcast at 6 p.m. on Sept. 11 on WPSU-TV and at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15, on WPSU-FM.
Barron will welcome David Hughes, assistant professor of entomology and biology, and Zhiwen Liu, professor of electrical engineering, for the debut episode. The group will discuss how Penn State researchers utilize crowdsourcing and mobile technology to protect the world’s food supply.
Hughes helped develop PlantVillage, a user-moderated Q&A forum designed to share practical knowledge about plants and plant diseases to farmers and growers around the globe. The website, which was launched in 2013, boasts more than 900,000 users and has cataloged more than 150 crops and 2,000 plant diseases. Liu developed a disease-detecting spectrometer used by PlantVillage that can attach to a phone.
“Digging Deeper” will also feature two student hosts, Kayla Fish and Michelle Wolf, from Penn State’s College of Communications. Wolf, a senior majoring in broadcast journalism, will serve as host during the fall semester, and Fish, a senior majoring in broadcast journalism and Spanish, will host during the spring.
A new episode of “Digging Deeper” will air each month during the academic year. Visit the “Digging Deeper” website for more information and to watched archived episodes.